Contactless power supply of sensors within industrial timing belts

In the area of internet of things and predictive maintenance, the monitoring of individual machine elements is becoming increasingly important so that servicing or repair can be planned cost-effectively. Currently, timing belt systems are only rarely analyzed and in most cases via less precise acceleration analyses on the housing. With a newly developed sensor electronics, which measures the acceleration and temperature inside the timing belt, it is possible to monitor the timing belt and the entire drive during operation. These values can then be transmitted wirelessly to a receiver unit and provide important information about the life cycle of the timing belt. Since timing belts often move in a circle with high speeds, a wired power transmission is not possible. Due to the relatively high energy consumption of the acceleration measurement and the long lifetime of the timing belts, a possibility of contactless energy transfer is presented here. In this, the sensor is connected to the conductive tension members, so that they can be used as a receiving coil. The alternating magnetic field, which provides the energy, is concentrated in a small ferrite core that protrudes through the surface stretched by the timing belt.